Yellowstone Quake team officials announced they will be required to forfeit three wins as the result having an over-age player on their roster. The ruling was handed down this past weekend by the North Pacific Hockey League (NORPAC).

Quick hits and short bits in an attempt to clear my notebook and my mind, just in time for the holiday season:

• It’s hard to say who had the more positive weekend, basketball-wise around Powell this past week. The Trapper women picked up a pair of huge conference wins on the home floor while both Powell High School teams took to the road to begin 3A West play. Both came home with 2-0 records.

• Don’t think the Panther boys’ 2-0 start to 3A West play went unnoticed either. The school picked up a pair of votes in this week’s WyoPreps.com boys’ basketball poll. The team hasn’t cracked the top five yet, but simply getting recognition is an indication that things are off to a good start for head coach Mike Heny’s sophomore campaign.

Seven Yellowstone Quake players scored goals, including three during a four-minute span of the third period, as Wyoming’s only Junior A hockey team returned from the Christmas break with an 8-1 thrashing of Butte on New Year’s Eve. The game was the first action for both clubs in two weeks.

Evan Dixon scored a shorthanded goal 11 minutes into the first period to open the scoring for the Quake. Tyler Torkelson and TJay Lozier added goals before the first intermission, giving the Quake a 3-0 lead.

The Northwest College Trappers returned from Arizona with a 1-1 split of hardwood action. NWC opened its second-semester schedule with an 81-58 win over South Mountain before falling at NJCAA Division II No. 7 Mesa the following night by a 76-47 final score.

“Mesa was perhaps the best team we’ve seen all season,” said Trapper coach Janis Beal. “They were quick. They had good post players. They pressured us on defense. They were the real deal.”

(Editor’s note: This article concludes a three-part series on the sports highlights around Powell in 2010. This installment looks at the months of Sept.-Dec. The first two parts of the series appeared in last week’s issues of the Powell Tribune.)

As the 2010 calendar wound down, the local sports scene continued to give fans plenty to cheer about. For some programs it was a little of the old, while others were experiencing things far newer.

The Northwest College Trappers split a pair of games in Yuma, Ariz., to begin the second semester men’s basketball schedule. The Trappers dropped a 70-54 decision to Arizona Western before bouncing back the following night with a 67-55 win over Yavapai.

In their first contest of 2011, the Trapper men got off to a fast start, but ultimately were hobbled by a tenacious Arizona Western defensive unit. The host Matadors, who began the year receiving votes in the NJCAA Top 25, limited Northwest to just 23 second-half points on the way to the victory.

After almost three weeks off, the Powell High School basketball teams return to the hardwood this Friday for the start of a four-game homestand. Three of those four games will involve clashes with opponents from the 3A West.

Both Powell’s boys’ and girls’ teams currently boast 2-0 conference marks, making it even more important to hold serve on their home floor.

Indoor track season opens Jan. 14 and, similar to past years, a number of Powell High School athletes will take advantage of a cooperative agreement to compete as part of the Cody High School team. Defending state indoor high jump champion and two-time 3A outdoor high jump champ Kyle Sullivan headlines the sizeable group.

They say life begins at 40. Maybe that’s why it took four decades for yours truly to be served up his first black eye.

The life moment occurred roughly two hours before the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve when the puck at the Yellowstone Quake hockey game ricocheted into the area where I was standing to photograph the game. It bounced off the boards first, but ultimately wound up bouncing off me as I attempted to evade its flight path.